


The Symkarian Civil War: Deafening Silence

by boyo44



Category: Marvel, Spider-Man (Video Game 2018), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Article Fic, Articlefic, Civil War, Fic Exchange, Gen, Journalism, War reporting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyo44/pseuds/boyo44
Summary: The reason I’m crouched in the back of a truck from the last millenium, freezing my ass off, is simple. The small Eastern European nation of Symkaria is in the grips of civil war, and not a soul has done anything.The article MJ writes on the Symkarian Civil War post-game.





	The Symkarian Civil War: Deafening Silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [supersonicsidekick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersonicsidekick/gifts).



> Part of the Marvel's Spider-Man Fic Exchange 2019, for supersonicsidekick and their prompt: _"MJ being her badass reporter self in Symkaria."_ I might have strayed a little far, but I hope you like it!

It’s three in the morning, I’m sitting in the back of a pick-up truck, and my coat is doing as an effective a job of keeping the cold out as a snail would push a boulder up a mountain. No-one ever said trying to get into a country in the grips of civil war was easy, but the somewhat shady man I met at the border could’ve at least told me I was going to need more than a cheap parka. Then again, that would’ve required me to speak Symkarian beyond ‘Can you speak English?’. Fulfilling stereotypes about Americans in foreign countries was not exactly my aim upon flying out of JFK International in March, but preparation has never been my strong suit.

The reason I’m crouched in the back of a truck from the last millenium, freezing my ass off, is simple. The small Eastern European nation of Symkaria is in the grips of civil war, and not a soul has done anything. Said civil war has been raging at various levels since the turn of the century, fought between the government - led by dictator Klaus Limka - and rebel forces led by the daughter of the legendary Ernst Sablinova, Aleksandra. The official story is that the civil war was ignited by loyalists to the monarchy that was deposed by Limka and his allies in 1999, but one would think that an attempt to restore a monarchy would be difficult if the royal family was supposedly dead.

I’m awoken a few hours later by shouting in Symkarian from the front of the stopped truck. I manage to sneak a look at the speakers, and breathe a sigh of relief when I see rebel uniforms. I’ve been smuggled in to investigate why this war hasn’t ended, and I at least have the support of the rebels in that. The truck starts up again a few moments later and I now start looking around. At first glance, the country seems broadly similar to its Balkan contemporaries, but look a little deeper and the signs of unrest become starkly clear. Military complexes are suspiciously well-kept, while farms and homes wouldn’t look out of place at the beginning of the Great Depression. Passing civilians are clothed in what looks like the castoffs from a GAP or H&M, while the skies are shattered by soaring jets bearing the insignia of Sable International - a name familiar to anyone who followed the Devil’s Breath crisis in New York last year.

Sable International is more than a simple mercenary company, despite what certain outlets may have claimed while it was enforcing martial law on Manhattan. Existing since the Second World War, Sable International is one of the oldest remaining mercenary companies in the world. Originally founded by Symkarian legend Ernst Sablinova, or as he is more commonly known Silver Sable, the company specialized in suppressing crime in still-developing European nations during the Cold War, as well as helping to resolve conflicts. Sable International was on the ground during both the Latverian-Rotruvian Insurgency and the early years of the Yugoslav Wars before the assassination of King Stefan IV in 1999. Up to that point, Symkaria had been one of the few remaining full monarchies in existence, but come October 1999, right-wing extremist Klaus Limka and his allies murdered the entirety of the royal family and seized power in what would become known as _Az Eső_ \- The Falling. What Limka was unaware of was the fact that the royal family was not all dead. King Stefan had not always been faithful to his wife, and had in fact sired a daughter with Aleksandra Sablinova - Silver Sablinova, bastard princess, second Silver Sable, and last of the Symkarian Royal Family.

This story was common knowledge among Symkarians - everyone I spoke to knew the tale, even those young enough to have only ever known the war. The truck is slow and the trip from the border is long - by the time I arrive in the rebels’ home compound, it’s been dark for hours. I’m ushered into what looks to be the most permanent building, though it still resembles the temporary portable classrooms I was ushered into as a teenager when my best friend blew up the science lab again. A small side room has been set out for me, with a tiny cot and even smaller desk for me to work at. Internet is apparently only for about an hour a day, and the connection is less than reliable. Still, I’m not complaining - ducking up and down from the back of a moving vehicle while trying to absorb every detail proved remarkably exhausting. In the morning I’m due to meet with Aleksandra Sablinova herself to discuss her rebellion and her daughter.

* * *

A rude awakening would be a gentle word for what happens the next morning. I’m awoken by a shrill siren I initially notice bears a resemblance to an air raid siren, before I realise it’s the real thing and I promptly panic. A soldier dashes into my room fairly quickly and explains in broken English that the siren was a false alarm, and the fragile ceasefire that I’d manage to be smuggled into still held. I was more awake than I’d ever been at that point - even more than when I was in college and my blood was half double shot espresso -  so getting ready for the day seemed prudent. An hour later I was standing in front of a large steel door, staring out of a tiny window at a derelict landscape. I had only a few moments to ponder on what I saw before the door swung open and a hardened, silver-haired woman stared at me.

“Come,” she said, in heavily accented English. Her gaze is hard but not unkind. She’s seen much, but it hasn’t broken her. She sits me down in front of a desk that wouldn’t look out of place in a paper company’s middle management, or some other similarly dull environment. The way she sits is classic military - straight back, perfect posture, ready to move at any time. She doesn’t appear to be willing to start the conversation, so I do.

The third syllable of “Good morning,” has barely left my mouth before she cuts me off.

“Get to the point.” Her voice is clipped. She clearly doesn’t care about American niceties.

“Your daughter is the last princess of Symkaria, but she was never raised as a royal. Is that because she was the product of an affair?”

“Symkarian inheritance is not as rigid as other countries. She could have taken the throne with no problems if there were no other heirs. Unfortunately, her very existence would have brought instability to the country since King Stefan already had two sons. When she was born, I intended to hide her from her father forever - simply tell her that he was a dalliance, and that I barely remembered his name.” She pauses for just a second before continuing. “However, shortly after Silver was born my father’s enemies attacked our home. In the chaos she disappeared and I thought her dead. It was not until 1999 when King Stefan found her living on the streets and contacted me that I knew she lived.”

It’s not easy to find, but the anguish in her voice is there if you listen. It’s difficult to imagine what that was like - losing your child so early, only to learn she had lived in the worst of conditions all her life. “What happened after that?” I asked, trepidatious.

“My daughter came home to me. She had learned to fight on the streets, and quickly began to thrive under my and my father’s tutelage. She didn’t have contact with her father or his family until he died. We kept her lineage a secret until she turned eighteen, when the war began. However, she did not stay in the country. When she turned eighteen, my daughter took command of her grandfather’s company and left Symkaria. It was too dangerous for her to stay.”

It’s certainly not what I expected - a story that wouldn’t be out of place on an HBO drama. But there’s one big question left to ask.

"Why fight? What really triggered the war?”

Sablinova snorts and makes a dismissive gesture. “Do not ask me. Go out to the people. Ask them.”

And so I do.

* * *

“My family was poor even before Limka, but the governor he put in our region starved us.”

* * *

 “I was a mine worker. My mine was shut down because it was apparently too expensive to run - we were told this by an official who kept stopping to sip his champagne on the broadcast.”

* * *

 “My family lives in Romania. When Limka closed the borders, I was cut off for years.”

* * *

 “My little sister was a campaigner for women’s rights. A week after she marched on the courthouse for equal pay, she disappeared.”

* * *

Almost everyone I interview of the course of the week says some variation on the theme. Not all of them were personally slighted - for some it was a family member or a friend, but that was enough. Everyone here hates Limka and his rule. Stories of political prisoners and fascist propaganda were shared as easily as the mundanest of anecdotes. Small wonder the fight has yet to be stopped for nineteen years - one would think with all the contempt on display this war would have been intervened in years ago.

But once you’re in Symkaria, it’s not hard to figure out why the world has failed this nation so spectacularly. Everyone’s stories about before also share another common theme - people were factory workers, miners, or mercenaries. Symkaria’s land is so starved of resources it’s impressive it managed to resist annexation by the USSR all the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall, until you look at Sable International. The country under Limka’s rule consistently falls into the lowest percentiles of international living standards surveys, if Symkaria even appears. This seems confounding, that a country could be failed so spectacularly by the international community just six years after events in Rwanda supposedly kicked the UN out of its complacency, until you look at a map. Symkaria is unfortunate enough to share a border with Latveria, and from there it’s not hard to figure out. An already unimportant country bordering Doctor Doom’s Delightful Dictatorship is unlikely to ever feature highly on the UN’s manifesto, no matter how many civilians are caught in the war.

Just a week after I emerged out of the back of a pick-up truck and blinked my eyes open to look upon the Symkarian wastes, I’m on my way out. Another trip back to the Romanian border and it’s a ten hour flight back to New York.

The Symkarian conflict is easy to dismiss as something that may never be resolved - it’s been going on almost longer than I’ve been alive - but there is true potential for resolution. Ending it would not be hard - both sides are operating mostly on outdated equipment and both are tired of fighting - but with the Fantastic Four’s conflicts with Doctor Doom always on the rise, and the fragile political situation in the western world, it seems that Symkaria may never see peace.

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of the stuff about Symkaria's background is taken from 616 - Ernst Sablinova, King Stefan, and Klaus Limka are all taken directly, and Aleksandra Sablinova is a genderswap of Alexie Sablinova and took Ernst's role as Silver's parent, as he would have been too old if the Nazi hunter background was to be kept. Silver's weird background is taken from me trying to fuse Silver's line about learning to fight on the streets of Symkaria and her status as a princess together in a remotely feasible way.


End file.
